Hey hey, they're not the Gories!

I am somewhat embarrassed to admit that the 5th Punk Rock Covers Night was the first I managed to get out to. They may well be the most fun you can have for Pay-What-You-Can (money raised to the SPCA of Western Quebec). Things began with the most modern of the covered bands, as Patrick Shanks (very many bands, including Shanker and Romps), Jim Sproull (Run.Stop.Restore, etc.) and Sarah Wotherspoon of The Johnnies covered The Gories, Mick Collins swell Detroit trash rock combo. Needless to say, they started off with Hey Hey, We're The Gories ...

Patrick sings!



Jim works the frets!



Both sides of Sarah!



Reflective action!



The whole luminescent lot!



More Patrick (and my shadowy self).



Jim sings!



And so on!



Extra Sarah!



Extra guitar!



The shouty bit!



The whole lot and a bunch of punks!



Gorie action!



The multiple end!



An excellent simulcra! I believe Patrick is in yet another new band with Neil Petersen (Boom Creek, Dead City Rebels), Jim and his twin brother John dubbed The Babyshakers, if Twitter is to be believed. As for The Johnnies, they'll be performing at Ottawa Explosion, Friday at Club SAW.

• Show reminder: Obviously, a bunch of Ottawa Explosion stuff at Club SAW, featuring Big Dick, Gary Voicemail, Mothr's Children and others, followed by more cool rock action at Babylon with Iron Chic, Low Culture, Crusades, Dead Weights and Robots Everywhere! At Raw Sugar you can hear Plumes and Sarah Hallman; Matt Mays and Gentlemen Husbands will rock Mavericks; The Jeers, Mad Chatter and Fliss perform at the Rainbow; the Elmdale hosts The Ticket, Little Stella, After Funk and Arms of the Girl;

Onto the trash heap

The Middens are a band with a life span far too short. They ran for a little more than a year, tittivating the ears of Ottawa audiences with the unholy yelp of the Pussy Galore/Honeymoon Killers-style trash blues. Former Centretown Crippler Matthew Wells is returning to Saint John's, NL. I feel fairly confident that Joe and Patrick will have other projects up and running in the not-too-distant future, but for now here's their final hurrah.

In hindsight, I kind of like like mirrors and white ceilings.



Patrick exercises his toe muscles.



Joe hits!



Matthew sings!



Matthew frets!



More Joe!



Okay, the shutter speed was a bit low for this one ...



The whole lot!



Reflective action!



Translucent action!



More shouting!



Patrick bounces!



The last jump!



And that's it.

• Show reminder: I forgot to mention it yesterday, but it is of course Westfest weekend, with performances today from Hexes and Ohs, The Johnnys (not our bunch ... this lot hail from the Northwest Territories), The Pack A.D. and Bif Naked; if you find yourself at the Montgomery legion today you can witness performances by Big Eyes, It's Asshole Time, Wooka Tribe, Nubians and Dead Lights; Today I Caught The Plague, Paramedics and Lay Low, Aim High are at Ritual; Knives and Forks for Freedom, The Krapskraps, RawRawRiot and The Mudplots' Thomas White play The Rainbow; Q-Tip Kaos and Assembly Required assemble at Zaphod's; The Avenues and Blisster and The Saddlesores roll into Irene's; if you're at Westfest and feel like heading indoors, you always go to the Elmdale and catch Brad Sucks and Kansas City Shuffle. Pretty Little Death Machine and Muffler Crunch rock the Avant-Garde Bar.

Rats, trash and babies

Last time I was at the Montgomery Legion it was for the Tomaney-Cook prenuptial shindigs featuring The Allrights, Centretown Cripplers and White Wires, but that was in the upstairs room ... for a basement shindig we have to go back more than five years to a Varge-Doers-DD.MM.YYYY-Expatriates-Quebexico gig ... all bands since defunct, with the possible exception of The Doers. Anyway, this show was an Ottawa Explosion warmup of sorts, featuring a couple of great local bands and a crew from south of the border.

Rat Tales are a new band of folks who you've already seen: The Girlfriends' Sammy and Wolfgang, plus their Mistress bandmate Coupe De Ville and pal Luke. They kicked out some really top-notch power-pop with super vocal work. Here's Coupe and Wolfgang (and my flash - they've installed a mirror since Quebexico et al. played there)


Rat Tales at the Montgomery Legion Hall, June 8, 2011

Luke and Sammy! As you can see they broke out the striped shirts, except for Wolfgang who ditched the shirt and kept the stripes (you'll see what I mean when I follow things up tomorrow, along with a lot of shoulder riding).


Rat Tales at the Montgomery Legion Hall, June 8, 2011

The Middens have been kicking out since an R'N'R Pizza Party show last year. Unfortunately it seems they're one of those bands with a short lifespan,  since frontman Matthew Wells is moving back to Saint John's. They went out as they came in, sharply dressed and ultra-distorted.


The Middens at the Montgomery Legion Hall, June 8, 2011


The Middens at the Montgomery Legion Hall, June 8, 2011

Finally, Nashville, Tennesee's Natural Child gave us a preview of some of the folks - like Bad Sports and Heavy Cream - who will be gracing our fair city for the Ottawa Explosion. When they started off they had me thinking of Endless Boogie. I also detect hints of southern rockers like Black Oak Arkansas and something of a Memphis garage rock sound.


Natural Child at the Montgomery Legion Hall, June 8, 2011

All this and a snappy beat too!


Natural Child at the Montgomery Legion Hall, June 8, 2011

A real treat for a Wednesday night.

• Show reminder: Machine Gun Dolly, Gunsmoke, RawRawRiot, Lost Youth and Scally Cap Brats play Cafe Dekcuf; downstairs at Mavericks you'll find Chuck Ragan, Dave Hause, The Rough Sea and Old Crimes; Weyes Blood, Angels in America, Karn and local personal faves Roberta Bondar perform at Babylon; Kathryn Calder, Brian Dunn and Ox play Zaphod's; the Elmdale hosts the charmingly named Petunia and Minimalist Jug Band, Big Smile shares the bill.

Top of the heap

The first time I talked about The Middens, they were playing at the Rock'N'Roll Pizza Party's swanky new home, Nine. For the second time, they were at the even newer emergency home at the MVP Lounge. Now, I'm not necessarily saying there's a dreadful Curse of The Middens, just that it's highly likely. Onward!

Matthew and Joe.



Matthew sings!



Old-timey microphone singalong action with Patrick!



Joe hits!



Fuzzy action! Shortly followed by less fuzzy action when some stompboxes went on the fritz.



Shadowy action!



Darn breaking straps!



Fisheye action!



Fishy Joe action!



And so on!



They have a swanky new design by famed artist Merinuk.

• Show reminder: The Rural Alberta Advantage, Laurent Bourque, Rebekah Higgs and Kalle Mattson perform at Ritual; Zeus and Amos The Transparent play Zaphod's; It's a very Manpower-y Christmas at Irene's, with Remi Royale as well. Big Jeezus Truck and Micarza Camaro rock the Elmdale House. New Car Smell roll into the Avant-Garde Bar.

Lounge lizards

Last night's Rock'N'Roll Pizza Party was not without its bumps. There was strap breakage, amp malfunction, stomp-box sufferation and of course while the folks at MVP Lounge were awful swell to host it on with such short notice, the Bank St. sports bar is definitely an odd venue for Ottawa's top weekly RNR party. Add to that I was definitely feeling under the weather (I think a cold or flu impends). Fortunately the three bands made up for it with great sets.

First up was Mississippi Grover, who rocked out in his usual fine one-man wildman style.


Mississippi Grover at the MVP Lounge, October 7, 2010

The Middens also played a hot set, even though frontman Matt Wells suffered both strap breakage and malfunctioning fuzz chain.


The Middens at the MVP Lounge, October 7, 2010

The Shakey Aches also got off to a really good start. I'm going to assume things ended well too, but I was starting to feel a bit shakey and achey myself, so I left after the first handful of songs. At least this time Mean Mad Matthew's vocal reverb was working.


The Shakey Aches at the MVP Lounge, October 7, 2010

The Shakey Aches also had some recordings of B-Sides for their upcoming single to hand out (you can access it here), while The Middens have some sporty new shirts with a design by Merinuk.

• Show reminder: Great Bloomers, Kalle Mattson and Andrea Simms-Karp are at Cafe Dekcuf; Aversions - who I remember playing a great set at Irene's a few years ago - and Wooka Tribe are at Bored to Death at Ritual. Krupke, Trevor James and The Perfect Gentlemen and Oceans are at Zaphod's; Wise, Young and King, Live How You live, The Damn Truth and New Teeth perform at the Rainbow; The Terry Gillespie Band and Lynne Hanson play Irene's; the Elmdale House hosts Earthquake Pills, Joe Bones and The Crowd Theory.

Pile on

So the shiftless youngsters of The Rock'N'Roll Pizza Party have a new home: Nine (or as its Roman friends call it, IX) on Elgin St. And the rocking groovsters Patrick Shanks (Secret Loves, etc.), Joe Vienneau (ex-Fucking Machines, Thunderuncle) and Matthew Wells (Centretown Cripplers) have another band: The Middens. The trio named after a trash heap play a heap of trashy blues in the vein of numerous New York scuzz rockers like The Honeymoon Killers and others from the Jon Spencer circle, with some of that lo-fi Memphis rock-soul. Now I will say that while Nine is a good place to hear music, it is not necessarily a good place to photograph bands, due to an unfortunate railing.

Matthew sings!



Joe drums!



I think I took this photo through the railing.



Patrick demonstrates the sartorial style for which The Middens are well known. Or will be, since this their first show.



Shadowy fisheye action!



The two sides of Matthew.



The multiple heads of Matthew!



The overhead view - like the Rainbow Nine has two stories.



More Joe!



The whole lot!



What they're up to next, I know not.

• Show reminder: The Termights and Geoffrey The Giant are at Zaphod Beeblebrox; The Idlers and Lindsay Ferguson are at the Rainbow; The Fuzzy Recollections play the Elmdale House.